Why Is Soccer Important To Me

I started my soccer career, if you could call it that, as a carefree kindergartener. Soccer at the time was just the thing that preceeded the real event, the postgame snack that would traditionally consist of cupcakes or Oreos and a juice box or occasionally the god-awful apple from a health conscious mother. So how is it that this sport would grow to become one of my greatest sources of joy and pride? This pride I speak of has not come from any particular standout skill; I am by no means a soccer maestro, in fact I am no stranger to the bench. Yet my time playing soccer has brought about a satisfaction that is unrivaled by any of my other various enterprises. To explain this it is perhaps best to skip ahead from the cupcake eating munchkin to the acne-covered middle schooler fighting for his place on an undefeated school team. My soccer resume up until that point had been typical. I had proceeded through the usual ranks, falling more and more in love with the game as the years progressed. By middle school I was playing on both my school and competitive club teams. Thunder and rainstorms were little more than further motivation; I played every day …show more content…
In the first day of a week-long tryout my hopes were dashed. I was quickly winded and even had to ask the coach to take me out of play. I came home seriously doubting if I could return, thinking that maybe I was not ready. Nevertheless I went the next day, followed by the next, and so on. My pride in playing soccer does not come from exceptional skill but instead it comes from the long and hard fight that I fought to simply even play the game that I love again and the immense joy I have received these past two years from winning that battle. This drive to achieve my ambitions and dreams defines me. It is this grit that follows me in all that I do and will allow me to achieve even my most distant of